


A Name Is a Powerful Thing

by windscryer



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Backstory, Female Pidge | Katie Holt, Friendship, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Pidge is a little shit, and proud of it, iverson knew, paladin & lion bonding, shiro does not want to know, voltron lions acting like actual cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-23 22:11:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9681536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windscryer/pseuds/windscryer
Summary: Green wants to know why her Paladin has more than one name and ends up learning how her Paladin came to her from so far away.





	

**Author's Note:**

> there is a post on tumblr somewhere that i adopted pidge's backstory from and i tried to find it but i can't orz (if you see it, please let me know so i can credit the person who came up with it!)

_Katie?_

“Hmm?” Pidge continued typing on her laptop, leaning in as she bit her lip, brow furrowed. She spotted the syntax error and relaxed. “Oh, duh.” Backspacing she fixed it and then kept going.

_Katie?_

“Yeah, what’s up?” She paused, fingers still moving on the keyboard, to look up at, well, at the throat of her Lion. Then she blinked. “Wait, what did you call me?”

_Katie_ , Green said, sounding much more pleased with herself. _You are called Katie and also Pidge. Why?_

Pidge let her hands fall to the keyboard to rest, leaning back against the cool metal of Green’s ankle joint where she was sitting on top of her paw.

“Well, Katie—or Katherine, more specifically—is the name my parents gave me when I was born. Katie is the nickname that they usually called me because it’s shorter than Katherine.”

She frowned. “I got in trouble trying to find out what happened to Dad and Matt, and Iverson—he’s the base commander,” she explained, looking up again. “He had me banned from the base. If I had applied under my own name, he would have rejected my application immediately. I’d have never been able to find out what was going on.”

She shrugged and looked back down at her laptop. “So I came up with another name and cut my hair so I’d look more like a boy and pretended I was Pidge Gunderson.”

_And this Iverson did not recognize you?_

A smirk curled her lips that Green couldn’t see but could definitely feel through their bond.  “Oh he knew it was me as soon as he saw me.” She chuckled. “I thought he was going to have a stroke right then and there. But my identity was solid. I made sure of that before I ever submitted my application to the Garrison. He didn’t want to call me out in front of the whole base and look incompetent, I think.”

Her shoulders rose and fell. “Whatever the reason he waited until the indoc—”

She felt a pulse of curiosity and explained, “Indoc is short for indoctrination. It’s where they teach you the basics of Garrison life, like where the mess hall is and how to log in to your account for assignments and things like that. How to survive day to day so you only have to worry about actually keeping up with classes and training and not where to send your laundry so you pass inspection.”

_That is an efficient way of sharing information._

“Oh my god,” Pidge moaned, “it’s actually _really_ boring, but, yeah, I guess it’s efficient too.” Amusement fizzled under Pidge’s skin and she almost giggled. It tickled a little.

_I am sorry I interrupted you. Please continue._

Pidge grinned. “You are not. You’re never sorry to learn new things, don’t even try that.”

Green gave the mental equivalent of a chuckle and then started to move. She did it slowly enough that Pidge had time to shut her laptop and stuff it, her pillow, her water bottle, and the little bowl of snacks she kept nearby in her backpack, and sling that over a shoulder.

Green shifted to lay on her side, carefully turning her paw as she went so that Pidge had time to climb onto the side and then back to the top again as it rotated. Instead of putting her paw down, she lifted it up to her face.

Pidge grinned and crawled over, kneeling up in front of the massive plates that made up Green’s nose. She braced her hands to the cool metal and then pressed a kiss on the black surface. She wasn’t actually sure if Green was sensitive enough to feel that, but she could tell what Pidge was doing through their bond anyway.

Green’s bright eye lamps dimmed and brightened in an approximation of a blink, a trick she was very proud of after Pidge had explained that slow blinking in Earth cats was a sign of trust and affection.

Pidge laughed and patted the metal again, then stood and hoisted herself onto the top of Green’s nose. The surface was slanted a bit, but she carefully made her way over and found a new seat where she could lean back between Green’s eyes.

_Continue your story, please,_ Green asked as she laid her paw down on the floor of her hangar.

“Where was I? Oh, right. So when indoc was over for the day, Iverson called me to his office.

“I thought I was done for,” she admitted, hands curling into fists. “I thought for sure he was going to toss me out and that was it. I was never going to find out the truth.”

The anger she’d felt that day came rushing back and she dug into her bag for her water bottle, taking a long sip and fiddling with the straw while she breathed through it to calm down.

“Taylor-Klaus was the one who spoke up for me, I think. She never said, but she always looked at me like she knew something. Of course,” she added, tilting her head to the side, “she also told me to my face that she expected great things on the first day of class, and she didn’t know anything about me as far as I know. But if anyone could have seen through my hack job it was her.” She smiled fondly at the memories of Taylor-Klaus’ advanced programming classes.

Pidge had more happy memories of the Garrison than most people would probably believe, even Lance and Hunk. It had been her own personal demon, yes, trying to find out what she needed to know without getting caught and kicked out again, but it had also challenged her in ways she hadn’t expected.

She’d gone for the truth about her family, but she’d found a lot more about herself—and that was before she was shot halfway across the universe to be a Paladin in a ten-millennia-long war.

“Anyway, he basically told me that he knew what I was up to and I wasn’t going to find anything, but the Garrison needed talented people like me.” She laughed. “He said those exact words, but he looked like he was chewing glass. As long as I kept up on my classes and didn’t get into anything I wasn’t supposed to, he would let me stay.”

She grinned with pure satisfaction, a feeling Green echoed along with pride. “I told him I had—” She shifted her voice to project the innocent bafflement she’d faked that day. “— _No idea_ what he was talking about! I just wanted to be the _best_ communications technician the Garrison had ever seen.

“He didn’t buy it for a second, but he let me stay. And since I _did_ do really well in my classes—and, _no_ , the simulator doesn’t count that’s… it’s not at all realistic for one and for another, I’d like to see how well _anyone_ could do with Lance as their pilot. He’s got skill and he works hard, but he also likes to show off a little too much. And his teamwork… needs some work. He’s getting there, but he’s not there yet.”

Green snorted, a sound both in Pidge’s head and a rumble under her butt as pressurized air was vented from the muzzle she was sitting on. She was pretty proud of that trick too.

_He is well suited to my sister, in that regard and many others._

Pidge laughed. “Yeah, they seem pretty well-matched.” Then she shrugged. “It’s not a bad thing necessarily, just annoying sometimes.”

Green hummed in mild disagreement, but didn’t argue further. Pidge got the distinct feeling she was being humored, but the Lion did have a few more years of experience on her, so she might have some grounds to stand on there.

Pidge let her head fall back and stared up at the ceiling, her fingers drumming on her water bottle.

“Iverson let me stay, obviously, and though I don’t think he ever liked it, he didn’t give me as hard a time as I expected. I wonder if he was surprised when we all vanished or if he blamed me for dragging Lance and Hunk into my mess.” She frowned.

“I wonder what he told my mom.”

The air vents cycled on again and she could feel the vibrations all through her back and butt and legs. It wasn’t exactly purring, given how Earth cats used their throats or chests or whatever, but it was pretty close, Pidge thought. It felt nice anyway.

She pressed a hand to the bridge of Green’s nose underneath her.

_You have not spoken much of her,_ Green tentatively offered, _but I am sure your mother is very proud of you. How can she not be? You are strong and brave and smart and kind. I am proud of you, my Paladin, for seeking answers, even when they took you far from home._

Pidge’s nose crinkled and she sniffed to try and hold back the tears that were threatening.

“Thanks, Green,” she said, stroking the warmed metal. “I’m really glad I came too.”

_Katie_?

“Yeah?” she asked, wiping at her eyes and willing the messy knot of feelings in her chest to go away. She paused and lowered her hand. “Wait, where did you even hear that?”

_From my sister. The Black Paladin worries for you._

She rolled her eyes, but the corner of her mouth quirked too. That was nice of him, and not at all a surprise, really. She just hoped he didn’t take a page from Matt’s book and become a brat about it.

“Shiro worries about _everyone_ ,” she said.

_He does, but he feels especially responsible for the danger you are now in._

Pidge frowned. “Well he shouldn’t. I’m here because I chose to be. And if this is because he feels guilty about Matt and Dad still—”

Green was very amused by that, if also more than a little proud. _It is not._

Pidge mentally pushed a feeling of flat disbelief.

_Not entirely_ , Green allowed. _You are everything I said, but you are also still young, cub. He is the Black Paladin. It is his responsibility and his right to think of your safety and well-being._

“And it’s mine to give him a hard time if he takes it too far,” she retorted.

Amusement lingered like bubbles in soda pop, but Green let it go for now. _Would you like me to call you Katie? Or would you prefer Pidge? Or Katherine?_

Pidge snorted, then shook her head. Ugh, tears and snot were so gross.

“You can call me whichever you’d like of Pidge or Katie. Nobody calls me Katherine though, except my mom when she’s mad at me.”

There was a note of maternal/older sibling something in Green’s mental voice when she said, _I will remember that_ , that had a distinctly ominous feel to it.

“I already regret telling you,” Pidge groaned and hid her eyes under her arm.

The purring increased in volume, then ceased as Green began to move again, lowering her head to the ground.

_The Black Paladin searches for you. It is time for more training._

Pidge groaned but slid to the edge. She swung over and hung from her fingertips until Green had gotten close enough, then dropped down to the floor. Placing a hand on the Lion’s nose one last time, she said, “Thanks. I’ll be back later to finish that script. I can’t wait for the others to see what we can do.”

_Or not see,_ Green said slyly. _As the case may be._

Pidge allowed herself a slightly evil chuckle. “They won’t believe their eyes,” she agreed.

The door opened and Shiro came in calling, “Pidge? Are you in here? Oh there you are. Come on. Training time.”

Pidge gave Green one last pat and then jogged across the floor to meet Shiro as Green returned to her upright position. “Are we doing more maze work or is it beat up the paladins for fun day again today?”

Shiro chuckled and led the way out of the room. “I don’t think that’s why we do those drills, but in any case, Coran was setting up the maze when I talked to him.”

“Excellent!” Pidge said, rubbing her hands together. “I shall have my sweet, sweet revenge.”

Shiro sighed. “We’re supposed to be _learning_ trust, not making it harder.”

“Hey,” she said, spreading her arms wide, “Hunk knew the risk he was taking when he borrowed my precision drivers and didn’t return them. I need to know I can _trust_ him to keep his word.”

Shiro blinked. “Wait, _Hunk?_ Not Lance?”

Pidge snorted and turned down the hall toward her room walking backwards. “Lance knows well the cost of borrowing my stuff without returning it,” she said, grinning. “I don’t think I will _ever_ have to remind him.”

Shiro stood there for a moment, looking genuinely baffled and a little concerned. “I… don’t think I want to know.”

Pidge turned around mid-step and called over her shoulder, “Ignorance _is_ bliss and also plausible deniability.”

She heard the distinct sound of a resigned sigh, but missed whatever he muttered under his breath as she stepped into her room to grab her uniform with a grin. He'd learn soon enough.


End file.
